Iowa stereographs

by Mary Bennett

At one time no American parlor was complete without a stereograph viewer and a stack of dual-image cards. People toured the world in three dimensions through the viewer's lenses and reveled in scenes from their own regions. Stereoscopic vision changed the way people saw the world. Using Iowa as a backdrop for exploring the golden age of this phenomenon, the authors of this richly illustrated book, which includes a handy stereo viewer, present an insider's look at nineteenth-century America. The remnants of this once popular pictorial tradition reveal an amazing record of the intricacies of yesterday's daily life. Unparalleled as documents recording this era, these 220 stereographs draw the viewer into the everyday life of early Iowans - into countrysides, main streets, living rooms, and parades as well as the extraordinary devastation of train wrecks and tornadoes and the curiously spectacular Sioux City Corn Palace.